Ann Port

Ann Cleveland Port was born in Macon, Georgia and raised in Phoenix, Arizona. In 1965, after graduating from Northwestern University in Evanston, Illinois with a major in English and a minor in history, she moved to San Diego and earned a Master's Degree in social sciences. For the next twenty-four years, she taught English literature, American literature, and AP English in the San Diego area. In 1992, Ann moved to Southborough, Massachusetts, a lovely New England town 37 miles west of Boston. There, over twenty years, she chaired three cookbook committees. One of the cookbooks, PERENNIAL PALETTE, earned the prestigious Tabasco Award for the best New England Regional Cookbook. As well, during these years, Ann pursued her passion for gardening. In 2000, her unique antique container garden was featured in a BETTER HOMES AND GARDENS special publication.

After retiring from teaching, Ann began to travel. Her numerous trips to Europe were never "if it's Tuesday it must be Belgium" excursions. Rather, they were lengthy visits to many of Europe's major cities with side trips to spend days explore the surrounding countryside. During her travels, Ann chronicled her experiences in detailed diaries. All of her novels are mysteries that use the information, thoughts, and feelings she recorded in these diaries.

IT'S ALL IN THE TITLE, Ann's first published book, is a mystery set in England and Scotland. The story takes place at Chadlington Manor, a country house hotel--in the book a private home--where Ann stayed while exploring the lovely English Cotswold region. Knockie Lodge, a fabulous small hotel near Inverness in the Highlands of Scotland and another major setting in the novel, became Ann's base for exploring the picturesque countryside. Her knowledge of Major League Baseball provides the basis for the plot--a woman baseball executive attempts to solve the mystery of her father's death while deciding the path her future will take.

THE IZNIK ENIGMA takes place in one of Ann's favorite cities, fabulous and exotic Istanbul. During a week's stay in the city in 2007 and a 2-day trip in 2008, she explored the mosques and palaces, all the while learning about the incredible Iznik tiles that, in the novel, contain clues that will, hopefully, solve an ancient mystery.

A FAIR EXCHANGE is set in Munich, Germany, the nearby town of Dachau, and the Dachau concentration camp. Ann initially wrote this novel, her first, without firsthand knowledge of these places. After completing the initial draft of the manuscript, she realized that, in order to tell a story accurately, it is important to spend time in the locations being depicted--that she couldn't merely rely on research. Consequently, she traveled to Germany where she spent days mapping the streets of Munich and identifying the locations of buildings that played an important role in the rise of the Nazi Movement. That task complete, she hired a driver and traveled to Dachau to explore the picturesque town as well as the infamous camp where the High Flight tests that drive the plot of the book were conducted in the early 1940s.

THE BERNINI QUEST, a mystery set in Rome, reflects Ann's appreciation of art and art history and of the city she grew to love during two lengthy visits. One of the novel's "characters" is Gian Lorenzo Bernini, the great Baroque artist who's "footprints" are evident throughout Rome in the fountains and, particularly, in Saint Peter's Basilica. A celebration of Bernini's life, brings two American television reporters to Rome where they unexpectedly discover a plot to assassinate the pope.

FULL CIRCLE, Ann's fifth novel, takes place in today's Paris, the "City of Light," with flashbacks to the days when Paris was "dark"--literally and figuratively--during the Nazi Occupation. A woman seeking to fulfill her grandmother's last wish--to recover the art stolen by the Nazis during the World War II--travels to Paris in an attempt to solve the mystery of the missing paintings and, hopefully, bring her grandmother's life "full circle." Ann's love of Impressionism, her study of Nazi Germany while earning her master's degree, and her love of the city of Paris are evident in the novel.

UNFORESEEN PATHS, Ann's latest novel, is a thriller set in Provence. An American woman, an artist traveling to Provence to start a new life after a divorce, is asked help identify which of two men is a potential terrorist planning to destroy Sainte Chapelle and the Palais de Justice, both iconic Parisian landmarks. She races against time to figure out who is planning the bombing of the buildings and to find a way to stop the destruction.

Ann is currently working on a seventh novel, WITHOUT REASON, a novel set in the Dordogne region of France. Publication is expected in late 2017.